Giving something your best shot, even if you aren't sure how to do it.
i.e. Mrs. Victoria Landers' way of saying, "I haven't taught you how to do this, and even if I did, you wouldn't understand it. But anyways, here you go!" Attempting the "old college try" always results in uncontrolled rage and frustration rather than learning. This condition is only augmented by trying to find help in the textbook, "Calculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic," possibly the epitome of a horrible textbook.

Mrs. Landers: "Just give it the old college try and you'll learn it."

Disgruntled student: "FUCK YOU MRS. LANDERS. I haven't learned shit all semester, and doubt I'm going to start learning by giving it the old college try like your whore ass tells me to." (Flips the bird)

To gather your friends, buy some cheap beer, order a pizza, and forget about tomorrow.

Calvin: Dad, what does it mean to "give it the old college try?"
Dad: It's when you gather your friends, buy some cheap beer, order a pizza, and forget about tomorrow.
Mom: That is NOT what it means.
Dad: Where did you go to college?

In a column that appeared in the _Columbus_ (Ohio) _Citizen_ (Nov. 26, 1927) and was quoted in _American Speech_ (Apr. 1930), Billy Evans wrote that "I gave it the old college try" is a term "often used in big league baseball, when some player keeps on going after a fly ball, usually in foul territory, with the odds about ten to one he would never reach it. Teammates of such a player often beat him to it by shouting in unison with the thought of humor uppermost: 'Well, kid, you certainly gave it the old college try,' as he falls short of making the catch. When some player does something that a professional player might not ordinarily attempt, such as colliding with a fielder who had the ball ready to touch him out, in the hope that he might make him drop the ball, regardless of the danger he was courting, someone is sure to say, often ironically, if the speaker happens to be one of the players in the field: 'That's the old college spirit.'"